


League of legends: Welcome to Runeterra

by Airavice



Series: League of Legends: Runes Eyes [1]
Category: League of Legends
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Gen, Multi, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22909969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airavice/pseuds/Airavice
Summary: Landing on the edge of the continent of Ionia, Kaldur is a man from another world, one who has no idea how he got there or why. As two denizens from this mysterious place attempt to find him, Kaldur must learn to trust in the aid of his new partner Ahri as he ventures this strange world. Can he survive his abrupt entrance to this new world full of magic and wonder? Can Ahri keep him alive long enough to get him home before something worse finds him? Welcome to Runeterra.
Relationships: Ahri (League of Legends)/Original Character(s)
Series: League of Legends: Runes Eyes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1646677
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	League of legends: Welcome to Runeterra

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Everyone!  
> Some of you may already know this story from the site Fanfiction and I thank you for coming over to this as well. For those who don't know: I have already finished this story and am currently working on the second book. Here you will see an edited version that is only slightly different from the original. Hopefully this way my story will acquire more viewers. At a certain point I hope that I will be posting both on Fanfiction and Ao3 at the same time, but that will be a bit off so for those who want the full story: head over to fanfiction and check for the book under the same name.
> 
> Thank you all for supporting me and I hope you enjoy!

**Prologue**

Ezreal knelt above a long drop and peered over the edge carefully, surveying his surroundings. Within the Shadow Isles, no light ever shines, and as he looked up at the blackened cloudy sky the young adventurer couldn’t help but agree with the rumor.

Many people tell the tale of this island. It was a paradise in its day of glory; a utopia where those of enlightenment stayed to seek greater knowledge and power. But, as with all things, someone let power consume them; and the arrogance of sentient beings proved to be the downfall of yet another civilization, resulting in the darkness above and below. Here, death is not even an escape from the horrors these isles were known to produce. In fact, many say that those who never reached the grave caused such maladies.

It was the perfect adventure. 

Ezreal once again gazed down into the blackened abyss that was a gaping maw before him. In that hole was a treasure, one beyond reckoning. Rumors of it had only started a few months ago; ones that preached an artifact of immense power … and potential fame. The problem was that the artifact was supposedly located in the heart of the Shadow Isles, the most dangerous place in all of Runeterra.

Ezreal grinned as he remembered his own excitement at the news, and the challenge that it presented. He lived for these rumors; the adventure, the thrill, and the mystery at the end just waiting to be discovered.

Turning around, Ezreal wrapped the long rope he had brought with him around one of the large twisted trees that lay scattered about, carefully prepping himself to fall into the dark abyss below him.

Leaning over the edge with the rope now firmly holding him, Ezreal dropped the first few feet and bounded off the walls till he could rappel himself in a steady fashion. The farther he went, the darker it got and, in turn, the worse it was for Ezreal to see what was below him.

Almost as if by design, his gauntlet, which hung on his left arm, began to glow a light blue. The radiance emanated from the crystal embedded in the top of the gauntlet. As the darkness seemed to increase, so did the glow from his gauntlet, allowing Ezreal to see all around him.

The pit kept going.

Ezreal grimaced as he looked down. He still couldn’t see the bottom and he was nearly at the edge of his rope, literally. Dropping farther and farther, Ezreal noticed that he could not see the top anymore. Whether it was due to the darkening sky outside, or by how far he had gone, Ezreal didn’t know. His only testament to his descent was his rope and the rapidly receding wall. By the time he struck the end of his rope, there was only pitch black around him. Even the wall he was climbing on had disappeared from view.

Ezreal hung there for a moment, and grabbed a small coin out of his pocket and dropped it below him, listening.

For a few seconds, he heard nothing till…

“Clang.”

The light repeating clash of metal on rock echoed below him, telling him there was ground… but it was far.

With a light smirk on his face, Ezreal let go of the rope and fell into the abyss; the light from his gauntlet trailing him as he went. Silently he counted the seconds as he fell, the dry wind causing his eyes to water.

One second after the next he approached the invisible ground at increasing speed; what would be a short span of time seemed almost too long as his heart pounded. Yet, just as his eyes could no longer make out the shape of his own gloved hand, a clear and unhindered image of smooth stone appeared briefly in his vision.

With a sharp direction of his will into the gauntlet, and a light pop, Ezreal found he was no longer falling, but held aloft by the same rope he had let go of not seconds before.

“Five seconds … in the dark.” He murmured, his gauntlet humming.

Concentrating on the image of the ground that he had barely seen, Ezreal put a little more power into his gauntlet, and once again the pop sounded. In that instant, he was no longer dangling from a rope, but standing on solid footing; his teleportation having worked wonders.

Pouring energy into his glove Ezreal raised it above his head and allowed the glow to fill the chasm. The light shown upon a massively elaborate hall, decorated with plumes of innate carvings and sculptures that passed the sides of the walls. The hallway was easily three hundred feet high and just as wide, allowing for clear and unhindered passage to the far gloomy end. A sense of curiosity overwhelmed Ezreal as he saw the magnificent passage, and many questions burned within his mind.

Taking his first steps since landing, he walked forward through the walkway, observing all as he went. The pattern changed slowly with each step he took. Initially the series of statues showed mighty warriors of times long past then, as the hallway began to draw to a close, the men began to look weaker until, at last, the men straddling the doors were people screaming in pain.

The hallways end was made of a set of double doors. Carved upon it were small runic symbols that glowed with a slight green emanation, each acting as a seal to the door itself.

Ezreal groaned.

Placing his gloved hand on the door, Ezreal began to examine the mechanism. The runes were made as a strong sealing spell, allowing no entry in or out of the door itself; but there was always a way around them and Ezreal knew how.

Power began to fill his glove and he started to trace the runes in cross sections, allowing a new rune to form over the first. After a few minutes Ezreal retracted his hand and looked at his work. The runes he drew crossed the sealing wards in varying patterns causing a slight blue glow to edge towards them. Watching his work, he noticed that the door’s runes began to glow brighter and brighter, lighting the hallway far more than his gauntlet. As the glow began to hurt his eyes the light flashed abruptly, the emanation having disappeared.

Both wards on the door had stopped glowing. In fact, Ezreal’s ward was no longer there. The short circuit had worked.

Eager, Ezreal ran to the door and shoved it open, stepping into a vaulted area. The room that he had entered was large to say the least. The ceiling was just as high as it was in the hall, and a thin long bridge stretched to the middle of it over a vast and deep chasm. In front of him, across the bridge, was a small pedestal over which hovered a crystalline rock. The chamber itself was dark with all but his gauntlet illuminating the path ahead of him.

Taking a deep breath, Ezreal approached the strange rock but erring on the side of caution. As he came closer, the stone began to exude a small amount of light itself. There was something familiar about the object, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. The stone was shaped like a cut diamond if the pointed end was rounded off. On the top of the stone was drawn a strange rune that Ezreal had never seen before; all the while the physical manifestations of purple and blue light swirled around it.

Standing before it Ezreal seemed to be drawn in, almost as though it wanted him to touch it.

Slowly he reached out his hand.

“STOP!” 

Ezreal spun around. Behind him stood a strange man. The occupant had violet skin that contained strange tattooed markings. He was bald on top and wore no shirt, with a long, braided, beard that frayed from his jaw. The pants he wore were that of a dessert dweller and he had no shoes. On his back the man carried a large canister that was connected to a sling which wrapped around him from his left shoulder. A hint of recognition sparked Ezreal’s mind.

“You’re that magician, the one with the scroll. Oh, what was the name the old geezer gave me … Ryze?” he asked, almost to himself.

“Do not touch that. You could not handle its power.” The man replied.

Ezreal focused on the man. “There are a lot of things that many have said I can’t handle. What makes this any different?”

Ryze sighed and looked straight into Ezreals eyes.

“That there is a World Rune. If you touch that your mind will not remain your own.”

The reply seemed sincere, which threw Ezreal a little off.

“I can handle myself.” He replied, gritting his teeth.

Ryze shook his head. “You cannot handle that. Please step aside,” he gestured.

Despite not being prone to anger, Ezreal couldn’t help but feel slighted at this stranger’s intrusion. “You just want it for yourself! If it is so dangerous then I should be the one to take it. I can give it to the university in Piltover and there it can be in better hands.”

Ryze narrowed his eyes, taking his time before responding. “That rune is best put where no one will ever find it.”

“And I suppose you would be the one to do that!?” Ezreal’s anger erupted from his voice, nearly startling himself as the words came out.

Ryze lowered his hand and stared into Ezreal’s face with a look of sadness on his. “I do what I must. You have heard my name, but I do not have the power that is imagined of me. I only have the strength I need to walk away from such power. Can you say the same of yourself, or of all of Runeterra?”

Ezreals anger began to fade the longer he looked into the strange man’s eyes; eyes that could have very well seen horrors he knew better than to face.

“You give people too little credit.” Ezreal responded, a grin arriving on his face as his confidence returned.

“Perhaps … perhaps not. The fact still remains that the rune is better off hidden away.”

The two men stood where they were, looking at each other.

“Well isn’t this a party.” A voice echoed through the room and the halls. Seeming to come from the shadows, and with a female grace attached, the voice distilled venom with every syllable.

The two men stopped looking at each other and scanned the area around them, trying to find the source of the voice. Ezreal felt a pang of uneasiness in his stomach.

“Two men bickering over their catch. All the while on _my_ island, in _my_ domain, and they didn’t invite me.”

Ezreal dived forward just in time to avoid the creature that almost landed on him and spun around to see a giant black and red spider that was standing where he just stood.

“Awww,” the voice came from the creature. “Did I scare you little boy?”

The spider’s figure began to shift in front of him, almost too fast for his eye to catch. He looked now at a young and voluptuous woman with the eyes of a predator. The woman stood at least six feet high and, while her face and accessories seemed human, her body was covered with abnormalities that represented a spiders appendages and skin. Like her other form the woman seemed to color herself in red and black.

“You should fire your clothing artist,” he commented, keeping the fear out of his voice.

“Oh, so we have a comedian with us,” she hissed. “I wonder if you can make me laugh as I drain the life from you.”

The woman began to walk backwards towards stone and its pedestal while keeping an eye on the two men in front of her.

“Such effort over a small little thing,” she began. “I wonder what secrets it holds.” She paused to take a small glance at the relic. “But then again I am not here for those secrets.”

The flash of power came before Ezreal could even register it.

In front of him the woman became surrounded by a violet chain of magic that encircled her and resembled a cage.

“Why you…!” she cried.

“Young man. Is that the gauntlet of Ne’Zuk?” called Ryze from behind him.

Ezreal aimed his eyes at the old man. “How did you…?”

“The gauntlet will protect you from the rune just enough to get it to me. Bring it here while I hold her, otherwise it may fall into less trusted hands.”

Ezreal looked back at the rune and realized the seriousness of the situation. While he still did not trust Ryze, he would rather it be with the two of them, where they could bicker about it later, than be with the spider woman in front of him. Quickly he moved forward and used his gloved hand to grab hold of the rune.

Ezreal had never felt so much power before in his life. As he held the stone, it called to him and threatened to envelop him at the same time. He was very tempted to listen; everything he desired seemed at his beck and call … his parents.

“Bring it back, quickly!”

Ezreal snapped to attention and brought himself back to reality. Spinning a one-eighty, he marched across the bridge and met up with Ryze.

“We must leave. Time is not on our side.”

With that Ryze and himself left through the door, all the while the spider woman screaming behind them. However, just as they entered the hallway, the ground began to shake and the room began to heat up.

“Is it just me or is the room getting a tad warm?” Ezreal asked.

Ryze’s eyes grew wide. “Brand! He followed me!”

Just then the ceiling before them opened up revealing a molten hole in front of them and a man as orange as the fire that covered him, dropped three hundred feet and slammed into the floor. He wore only a seared pair of pants that was more like a body suit then actual clothes, whereas the rest of him was nothing but human muscle lit up by red, yellow, and orange hues.

“Is this the no-shirt party or something?” Ezreal asked as he raised his gauntlet to the new intruder.

“Fancy seeing you here Ryze,” called Brand, ignoring Ezreals jab.

Ryze didn’t even hesitate as the tattoos on his body glowed and he erupted a beam of magic at the approaching foe. Ezreal in turn aimed his gauntlet at Brand and fired an energy pulse, striking him in the side.

Brand shot to the left, encircling the two combatants and melting the ancient hallway along the way. Fire came from his hands in waves as he shot at the two men who faced him. Ezreal thought of an area farther down the hallway and with a small blink he was instantly farther from the combat. Raising his gauntlet, he erupted a small barrage of mystic shots from it, striking Brand in the back and sending him into the wall near the door. Ryze took that as an opportunity and ran to meet up with him.

Just as he came around, the door swung open on melted hinges and the spider woman entered, a sea of similar creatures at her feet charging towards where they stood. Ezreal took one look at Ryze and the two of them turned towards the other end of the hallway and ran. Breathing heavily, Ezreal tried to remember where the exit was only to realize that the man called Brand had used it to make his entrance; the rope probably seared into nonexistence.

Ducking a massive blast of heat that sailed over them, Ezreal shot a few blasts of his own behind them only to find that the pair was catching up.

“I can get us out of here,” stated Ryze. “But I need some time.”

Ezreal looked at the two villains gaining upon them and nodded his head. “You got it.”

Raising his arm up to point at the intruders he began charging power into his gauntlet. It glowed brighter as it powered up, its sides forming long streams of energy in the shape of a bow as platelets of metal removed themselves from the gauntlet. With a last push of energy, Ezreal let loose the power and an arc of yellow light shot forward toward his enemies. The light struck Brand with tremendous force, tossing him back a fair distance. The spider-like woman, however, sidestepped the blast; only stopping to avoid the now flying fire wielder.

Taking a breath, Ezreal noticed the light from his gauntlet begin to fade, being replaced by a purple glow that surrounding him and Ryze. Before he knew it, they were outside the cavern and in the density of the forest that inhabited much of the Shadow Isles.

“That was close,” commented Ezreal, as he collapsed to the floor.

“I will be taking that now.” Ryze held out his hand.

With all that had happened, Ezreal hadn’t even noticed that the rune was still in his hand; it even withstood all of the energy he used through his gauntlet. He brought it up to his face and took another good look at it. The rune still swirled with power and, now that he got a better view of it, there was not only blue and violet colors surrounding it but black as well. Something about it didn’t sit right with him and, now that he knew what it could do, he didn’t want anything like it to effect others should he be foolish enough to give it to them.

“If I give this to you, two things are going to happen.” He looked up at Ryze, who in turned raised an eyebrow.

“First, you will let me know if you need help for anything like this again. I love the adventure and you seem to have a lot of it.”

Ryze’s eyebrow dropped and he nodded his head. “Perhaps in the future.”

“Second, you will take me to where you will hide this. I want to know that it will be well hidden and, while I don’t distrust you, I would rather that if anything were to happen to it, I would know where to go.”

A dark shadow fell over Ryze’s face. “No.”

“Then you are going to have to fight me for it.”

Ryze’s tattoos began to glow as Ezreal finished his comment.

“Before you blast me away, consider the scenario that you may fail.”

The glowing receded, followed by a curious glance.

Ezreal pressed on. “If you kick the bucket, who is going to continue to hide these away? I mean, doing this on your own for … how long? It’s got to take a toll.”

“It is not your responsibility. You know nothing of this task; only that which I have told you.”

“Then tell me more;” Ezreal reasoned. “You have to admit, while I doubt someone as … old as you will pass on any time soon. Doing this alone has to be a hassle.”

Ryze didn’t answer.

“I don’t need to be around you constantly or anything. I just need to make sure that if the world is about to come to an end, I’ll have a hand in stopping it.”

Ryze seemed to be chewing on the thought for a good while before he nodded his head in response, holding out his hand.

Satisfied, Ezreal passed the rune to him.

The moment it touched Ryze’s hand a sharp blast of magic erupted from the stone and he dropped it to the floor.

“Something’s wrong.” Ryze looked panicked. “The world rune has dark energy in it and … something else. This shouldn’t exist.”

Ezreal looked back to the rune that had now landed on the twig and branch cluttered ground. The emanation of light, which had only recently been a light flicker, was now fiercely shining on the two of them and increasing its intensity. Ezreal reached forward and grabbed the shocked Ryze by the wrist and dove for cover behind a few trees.

A flash of light shook the ground causing the trees to creak around them. It only lasted for a moment but it was just enough to cause Ezreal’s head to swim. When he finally got his bearings he realized that the two of them were lying on the floor.

Quickly Ryze and himself stood up and peeked around the tree trunk to catch a look at the rune.

It wasn’t there. What stood in its place was nothing more than a man in strange clothing. He stood about five feet ten inches with short sandy blond hair and pale skin. With blue eyes and a thin figure, he seemed to embody someone generally well-kept handsome.

“Where…?” the man began, but before he could finish another sudden sharp light erupted from the man’s body.

Ezreal and Ryze covered their eyes, and when the light vanished so, too, had the strange man and the World Rune.

Ezreal looked at Ryze. “What now?”

Ryze took a deep breath and waited a good moment before responding. “I do not know.”


End file.
